WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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Half-million US jobs vanish in Nov
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-06 09:45 Workers with jobs did see modest wage gains in November. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent, but paychecks haven't stretched that far because of high prices for energy, food and other items. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is now expected ratchet down a key interest rate, near a historic low of 1 percent, by at least a half-percentage point on Dec. 16 in a bid to breathe life into the moribund economy. Bernanke is exploring other economic revival options and wants the government to step up efforts to curb home foreclosures. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whose department oversees the $700 billion financial bailout program, also is weighing new initiatives such as tapping the second half of that rescue money to ease the economic crisis. Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has vowed to have a package ready on Inauguration Day for Obama's signature. The measure, which could total $500 billion, would bankroll big public works projects to create jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs, and provide money toward renewable energy development. For now that's cold comfort to Gary Cope, 33, who lost his communications job this week at Roanoke, Va.-based high-tech research and development company Luna Innovations Inc. Cope was called into a meeting first thing Thursday morning. The message: He was being laid off, for financial reasons, effective immediately. He left with a box of his belongings and about two months' severance. As Cope walked out the door, all he could think was, "I have a 3-year-old son and I'm a single dad." "I came home and did my initial pity party, then I got myself together, talked to my family and went right to work" rewriting his resume and sending it out, Cope said. |
